1950 Packard Drawing

One of the coolest parts about drawing cars is that you can play around and customize your favorite cars on paper without spending a lot. One of my favorite designs is the very Art Deco-styled 1948-1950 Packard Custom Eight. I don’t know why, but this body is rarely hot rodded – ironically, you don’t see many custom Custom Eights. Here’s my rendition with this 1950 Packard Drawing.

The smooth curves and Art Deco grille and trim of the Custom Eight have always caught my attention. Two modifications I think would improve the car are lowering a couple inches, and adding chrome steel wheels.

I started the drawing with a rough pencil sketch. I’ll frequently find pieces of packaging, cardboard, or loose packing paper that makes for good contrasting material in drawings. That was the case here – I drew this on a piece of loose cardboard that was some sort of packing material.

Next, I retraced using Micron 02 – a little thicker than I typically start with, but the carboard is very absorby and takes in a lot of ink.

I layered in Micron 02 and 05 to give some atmospheric perspective. It pops out the bumpers from the body and gives some layered depth to the car. I took this shot just as the sun was coming up, which gives it this cool golden glow.

Next, I filled in the black areas in the tires and under the car. I also laid in the pattern for the light reflections in the body.

I filled in the rest of the dark shaded areas in the body with Sharpie marker.

Finally, I filled in the light reflections with Posca white, and drew the white outline around the car. I used Copic gray markers for the window reflection gradient on this 1950 Packard Drawing.